The invention discloses an aged rule maintenance method and equipment, applied to the technical field of communication. The aged rule maintenance method comprises the following steps: receiving a new message, matching rules in the message and containing address information with rules in a TCAM rule storage space; and using the address information to cover a rule with the longest storage time if the address information is not contained in the rules in the rule storage space and the rule storage space is confirmed to be fill . Compared with the prior art which uses an FIN packet to delete a corresponding rule so as to realize the aged rule maintenance, the embodiment of the invention uses a new rule to cover the oldest rule if the rule storage space is full, avoids the situation that some rules are never deleted, reduces the waste of effective resources and the accumulation of rule fragments and junk, has a very simple maintenance process and reduces the resource consumption.